Date Aired: Tuesday 02 Dec 2008
Guest: Thalia "ad.astra" Kohls was our guest for this show to discuss alt.space and NewSpace from an outsider's perspective. Thalia shared with us her views and experiences in communicating with NewSpace participants on blogs and in other venues and you will hear why she is critical of this community. I too have shared many of her experiences and commented on them during the show. We also spoke about engineering, science, and inspiring space projects like humans to Mars. Thalia expressed the...
Date Aired: Tuesday 25 Nov 2008
Guest: Jerry Carr was the guest for this Space Show program. The basis for our discussion was his biography published by Apogee, "Around The World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr." The author for this authorized biography was David Shayler. Naturally, much of our discussion focused on Skylab and his mission, Skylab 4. One of the early discussion topics was the Skylab 4 workload strike which has become notorious. Jerry explained it in detail and how it got...
Date Aired: Friday 21 Nov 2008
Guests: Leonard David was the guest for three segments of our program, followed by Barbara David joining us for the last segment. We did much forward-looking during this show given the changes taking place in government, the economy, and the space community. We talked about the incoming administration and what it might mean for space, the Space Coast of Florida, and its commitment to human space flight, the economy, viewing the Space Shuttle, and much more. Leonard reported on the recent Lunar...
Date Aired: Tuesday 18 Nov 2008
Guest: Ross Tierney was the guest for this in-person taped interview conducted here in Cocoa Beach on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. This was a very hard-hitting interview with Ross about Direct 2, its technology, its likelihood of being adopted by NASA as an alternative to Ares 1, and more. I asked Ross why we should have confidence in Direct 2 when it was basically a PowerPoint presentation given that it has not yet undergone any metal bending, any development or testing. I asked why there would...
Date Aired: Friday 07 Nov 2008
Guest: Norman J. Gerstein was the guest for this special Space Show program. Mr. Gerstein was deeply involved in Rover/NERVA and we discussed these programs in detail. He was part of the KIWI-TNT team and involved in the cleanup by picking up the debris with a wheelbarrow and tongs. Norm described these programs in detail along with the nuclear rocket which we compared to chemical rockets. Norm made it very clear that one needs a mission to do these programs. Another way of saying it, is to...
Date Aired: Sunday 21 Sep 2008
Guests: Robert Jacobson, Dr. Paul Eckert, Tom Olson, Bruce Pittman, and Rex Ridenoure were the guests on this Space Show program to discuss the upcoming Space Investment Summit 5 which will take place on Oct. 5, 2008 in Bel Aire (Los Angeles), CA. To find out more about the event and for online registration/hotel, please visit www.spaceinvestmentsummit.com for more details. We discussed the organization of the Summit, the players, the investors that will be present, and the types of companies...
Date Aired: Tuesday 16 Sep 2008
Guest: Winston E. Scott (Capt. USN Ret.), former NASA Astronaut, returned for this Space Show program to discuss his "Win An Afternoon with Winston E. Scott, The Astronaut" contest. When a school buys his book, "Reflections From Earth Orbit", they enter the contest to win Capt. Scott for an afternoon. Capt. Scott will come to the school to talk with the students about space. Parents, grandparents, and others can buy and donate his book to the school and enter the school in the contest. The...
Date Aired: Friday 05 Sep 2008
Guest: Gus Frederick was our guest for this Space Show program in order to discuss Martian caves and lava tubes with us. You can follow along in the discussion with these two websites and the instructions provided by Gus: 1) The Caves of Mars located at http://www.highmars.org. 2) Caves of Mars Illustrations located at http://www.highmars.org/marscave. Gus provided other URLs during the show and you will want to see the pictures and graphics he discusses. We talked not only about Martian caves...
Date Aired: Tuesday 26 Aug 2008
Guests: Retired General Bob Dickman, Executive Director of AIAA, Col. Richard White, USAF SMC LAAFB, and Maureen Heath of Northrop Grumman Corporation were our guests tonight regarding the upcoming AIAA Space 2008 Conference to be held in San Diego, CA from Sept. 9-11. For conference information and registration, please visit www.aiaa.org. We started our discussion with Ms. Heath and the Civil Space Day programming that she has been organizing for Wednesday, Sept. 10th. This specific...
Date Aired: Sunday 27 Jul 2008
Guests: Dr. Robert Zubrin and Chris Carberry of The Mars Society were our guests today to discuss the upcoming Eleventh Annual Mars Society Conference to be held in Boulder, Colorado from August 14-17 (Please see www.marssociety.org/portal/c/Conventions/2008 for more details). Both Dr. Zubrin and Chris took us through the list of major speakers and programming and we elaborated on many, including the unusual religion and space panel which will be held on Saturday, August 16th. Also, we learned...
Date Aired: Sunday 06 Jul 2008
Guests: Dr. Bryan Laubscher and Dr. Martin Lades were guests for today's Space Show to discuss the space elevator and the upcoming space elevator conference (www.spaceelevatorconference.org). We started our discussion with the basics of the space elevator concept and why at this point in time convergence is necessary for the space elevator's development. Our two guests covered these issues in some detail and then more when listeners starting asking about why we need a space elevator. Not only...
Date Aired: Tuesday 01 Jul 2008
Guest : Charles Chafer, co-founder of Celestis and CEO of Space Services, Inc., returned for this Space Show program to discuss updates with Celestis. We talked about the new lunar space burial program as Celestis has formed agreements with two Google Lunar X-Prize teams, Odyssey Moon and the Astrobotic Team. There were many listener questions about both the lunar burial service as well as suborbital, orbital, deep space, and even a potential Martian and NEO burial service. As one listener...
Date Aired: Thursday 26 Jun 2008
Guests: Brian Mosdell, followed by Bill Dowdell and Jon Cowart. Brian Mosdell is the Director of Florida Launch Operations for SpaceX. We started this discussion with a brief overview and history of SpaceX, its objectives, launch vehicles, and their launch services/market that they will likely provide. We also talked about the upcoming Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launches scheduled for this year. In response to my question having visited Space X in California, Mr. Mosdell explained "friction welding...
Date Aired: Tuesday 17 Jun 2008
Guest: William Watson, Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF), was the guest for this show to discuss the upcoming NewSpace 2008 conference, July 17-19, 2008 in Washington, DC. Will went over the list of speakers and panels, noted that the conference is single track unlike many other conferences, and responded to listener questions about students, NASA participation, side trips to possibly Goddard or Wallops, and much more. We talked about space education and career...
Date Aired: Sunday 15 Jun 2008
Guest : Andrew Thorpe, author of "The Commercial Space Station: Methods and Markets" was the guest for this Space Show program. To learn more about Andrew's books and work, please visit his website: www.maxastro.com. We began our discussion with Andrew explaining why the current ISS is not the commercial space station he talks about in his book. You will want to hear this distinction. We then discussed a series of potential markets in space including microgravity, protein crystal growth, space...
Date Aired: Sunday 25 May 2008
Guest: Rand Simberg, who blogs at Transterrestrial Musings (www.transterrestrial.com/), was the guest on the show. Rand recently wrote an article about the possible space policies from each of the three leading American presidential candidates and we wanted him to talk about his views on this subject right here on The Space Show. This was a comprehensive discussion on space policy, not just the possible policy of each of our presidential candidates, and you will find this information most...
Date Aired: Tuesday 20 May 2008
Guest: Dennis Wingo was the guest for this Space Show program. We started out discussing energy which, as Dennis stated, is a very complex problem. This led to our discussion of the Moon as a microcosm of the Earth's macrocosm environment. Dennis also described the process for lunar construction for solar power hardware and then getting it to Geo from the Moon. As you will hear, listeners asked him if it would be humans on the Moon doing the hardware construction or robotics. You will want to...
Date Aired: Sunday 11 May 2008
Guest: Greg Zsidisin was the guest for this special extra-long Mother's Day Space Show program clocking in at around 2 hours, 12 minutes. During the program, Dr. Buzz Aldrin called in twice . Bill Haynes , who was with Skylab and the Minuteman missile program , also called Greg. We started the discussion with Greg talking about his recent series of articles in The Space Review (www.thespacereview.com). To find them, go to "The Space Review" homepage and in the search box in the upper right, put...
Date Aired: Monday 28 Apr 2008
Peter Kokh, President of The Moon Society (www.themoonsociety.org), was the guest for this Space Show program. We led off with a definition of The Moon Society, what it does, and what its doing to promote and help facilitate the Vision for Space Exploration and the Return to the Moon. In response to a question, Peter compared the Moon Society to the Mars Society and described how The Moon Society supports lunar development and settlement as well as the same for Mars. However, the Moon is closer...
Date Aired: Tuesday 22 Apr 2008
Guests: Dr. Roger Launius and Dr. Howard McCurdy were the guests for this Space Show program to discuss their new book, "Robots In Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel." This was a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion about our present and future role in space, both with robotics and humans, then with some type of yet-to-be determined combination. One of the issues discussed was how to create a space program that could electrify the public as was the case with the early...
Date Aired: Wednesday 26 Mar 2008
Guest: Matt Hancher was the guest for this special Wednesday Space Show program. We began our discussion with an explanation of the Yuri's Night global celebrations. For more information on this event, please visit their main web page www.yurisnight.net. From their website, you can find where the parties are located in the United States as well as around the world. If you find there is no party near you, you can start one. Just follow the instructions on the website and add your party's...
Date Aired: Tuesday 25 Mar 2008
Guest: Steven Milloy, founder of JunkScience.com (www.junkscience.com), was the guest for this program. Steven started out telling us how and why he started JunkScience.com. This is an interesting story about agenda driven and controlled financing of science projects and experiments, so don't miss it. From this topic we went to the topic of aerial spraying, DDT, and real vs. imaginary science behind such government or NGO programs. Again, this is an important discussion. If anyone would like a...
Date Aired: Monday 17 Mar 2008
Guest: Robert Zimmerman returned to The Space Show and we started our discussion mentioning what was happening with the current Shuttle Endeavor flight. This led Bob to mention that Endeavor was going to be the back-up safety shuttle for the Hubble repair mission which is planned for late August of this year. As Bob has a new book coming out this May, "The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It," we embarked on a comprehensive discussion of...
Date Aired: Sunday 02 Mar 2008
Ken Davidian returned to The Space Show as the NASA EMSD (Exploration Systems Mission Directorate) Commercial Development Policy Lead. You can follow part of Ken's discussion with the following URLs. The first is part of his presentation from the recent Space Exploration Conference and can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/214648main_1015-Davidian%20.pdf. The second URL is a complete list of presentations from the conference: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/3rd_exploration_conf....
Date Aired: Tuesday 26 Feb 2008
Guest: Dr. Jeff Bell returned to the Space Show for a two hour controversial discussion on many important topics. This is a program you will not want to miss. For example, did you know that we might soon see the cancellation of the human spaceflight program? Listen and see if you agree with Dr. Bell and his analysis. We also talked about the much needed human factors research which is not being done as well as other problems with NASA along with its focus on the VSE/Aries 1. Dr. Bell suggested...
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